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2/5 Too expensive to only use a handful of times.

My mum was given a Jamie Oliver Flavour Shaker a few years ago as part of a gift set I think from Boots. It's still going strong as is something I used often whilst cooking so when I moved out it was something that I wanted in my own kitchen. They are basically a modern alternative to a pestle and mortar and can be used for mixing all sorts of different ingredients.

I bought my Flavour Shaker from Amazon using vouchers and it was quite expensive at about £15 but as I liked my mum's so much and I wasn't actually parting with real money I didn't mind. They aren't that widely available anymore, unlike a few years ago when they first came out and they seemed to be really popular but they can be picked up quite readily on ebay.

The flavour shaker is often described as looking a bit like a bowling pin, and that's a pretty accurate description! I have the classic version and the body of the shaker is a dark grey plastic, it splits into two about a third of the way up and there's a black rubber grip which runs around the outside to make it easy to hold and also acts as a seal. There's a small but heavy ceramic ball inside the shaker which is there to crush and mix the ingredients, this can be removed so you have to make sure you don't lose it! The rubber is engraved with Jamie Oliver's name and the simple Flavour Shaker logo.

To use the shaker you unscrew the two parts and put your ingredients into the base of the shaker, you have to make sure that you don't put too much in. On top of the ingredients you put the ceramic ball and then you screw the two parts back together. There are two little arrows on the shaker which you need to line up to and make sure the rubber is in place, apparently this is meant to stop it getting damaged! Then all you do is shake it for a few seconds and you mix is ready.

The Flavour Shaker is really easy to use and an easy way to mix together a few simple ingredients which can make a meal really delicious. When you start shaking the noise of the ceramic ball crushing everything inside is really very loud and is quite alarming really. I had the success the first few times using the shaker and it was as good as the original that I had used many times before. However, after just a few uses I noticed that the shaker had started to leak. The plastic on the inside had gradually been chipping away, even though I had followed the instructions.

As I said previously, my mum had one of these and it was great. I used it for all sorts, dry marinades, salad dressings, pesto or just mixing different seasonings but the newer models just don't seem to be as good as the original product. I'm really disappointed as when they work they work well but unfortunately mine didn't, it was just a waste of money, one to avoid.

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Thanks for Reading :)

The Jamie Oliver Flavour Shaker was given to me as part of a Christmas gift, however looking around at prices online the prices are as follows:

*Amazon: £14.99

*Debenhams: £8.00 (low in stock)eBay: £14.99

*Tesco: Special edition version £31.80

It is worth looking around for decent offers or sale prices, especially on auctions sites as you may be able to grab yourself a bargain.

Design= = = =

I have the grey coloured version, but I believe it also available in red colour. The shaker has a sort of funky design and looks a lot like the shape of a Russian doll. The Shaker itself is made from plastic material, which has a grey coloured finish. The plastic material doesn't make the item look cheap, instead the design and shiny glossy finish gives the impression that it is definitely a designer item. The plastic covering encloses an inner circular ball that is made from ceramic material and sits neatly inside the shaker.

My Experience= = = = = = =

*What Is It?

The Jamie Oliver Flavour Shaker can be used to mix herbs, grind spices, make purées, marinades and as well as salad dressings. It is a very handy tool indeed and a clever one at that, as I am a big fan of cooking all different kinds of dishes and this flavour shaker really makes the whole process of grinding black pepper seeds, cinnamon sticks etc so much easier.

I often like to make pastes and marinades and this also enables me to do so quickly and easily. The heavy ceramic ball inside is responsible for crushing, grinding, mixing up all the ingredients together, so you don't have work to long shaking it which is great. The rubber rigid material outside the shaker provides good grip for holding and shaking and I have never experienced it slipping out of my hands. I personally actually find it quite enjoyable shaking away my Jamie Oliver shaker!

*How to Use

To use to simply put in whatever you want mixing, grinding, or crushing into the shaker and turn to shut and then basically shake shake away! Like you were shaking maraca instruments! The shaker is not lightweight, but it is also not too heavy, as it is mostly made from plastic. The main weight of the shaker comes from the ceramic ball inside the shaker, as it needs to be heavy enough to be able to crush and mix ingredients. The results are great and I found that it always manages to work for me, mixing and grinding everything that I put in.

Cleaning= = = = =

Cleaning is very easy and takes just a few seconds, due to its being so quick to wash by hand I have never tried washing it in the dish washer, but according to the Jamie Oliver website it is dishwasher safe as long as you follow the following instructions carefully:

'Yes the Flavour shakerTM can be washed in a dishwasher but only on the top shelf. Although the item is dishwasher safe, it is strongly recommended that the sealing ring is removed and washed by hand in warm soapy water and rinsed thoroughly. Replace sealing ring after cleaning'

Please refer to http://www.jamie-olivers-kitchen-kit .com/FAQs/FlavourShaker.aspx for more information.

Conclusion= = = = = =

Overall this is a clever little kitchen tool that makes the process of making dishes so much easier and quicker because I don't have to waste time cutting things up by hand. It takes seconds to wash up and all in all helps me shake up a storm!

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Pukka this ain't!!

For some time this has gathered dust at the back of our kitchen cupboard, we were given one of these as a wedding gift, as my wife felt it looked really impressive and would be a great asset in the kitchen. On both fronts we are now agreed she was wrong.

This is a whim purchase and nothing more, shaped like a pear, you place your flavours in the shaker and then crush and grind them into a marinade or whatever you wish. To my mind the idea was this was to make a more convenient pestle and mortar, however, this fails miserably, it is complicated to lock, it leaks, it is noisy, it fails to crush seeds or spices and make a real marinade. Overall it was rubbish.

The product is available in a myriad of stores, it has been a strong seller, but doesn't live up the hype, despite how good it looks of Jamies kitchen shows.

When you open the box it is much smaller than you'd imagine, it is ineffective in crushing spices and it just doesn't cut the mustard as a serious kitchen product. The instructions for use are simple and clear, but unfortunately the product can't match its expectations.

We've heard from friends that other Jamie Oliver products were similarly disappointing. We were slightly shocked at how bad this is, it doesn't take much space, but who cares when this is so ineffective. We don't want to sell this on and would rather throw it away as it is not very good at all.

We followed instructions, adding flavours into the shaker and then dropping the ceramic ball on top of them, we then screwed the top and bottom parts of the shaker together and began shaking, after a while, we felt the ingredients must have fused together, however this wasn't the case so we had to continue too long, making the whole process more work than a pestle and mortar, when the herbs and oil began to fuse it began leaking while we shook it, this has happened on more than a few occasions, so we have given up on the product.

Overall it is incredibly overpriced, poor quality, fairly ugly, ours is see through olive plastic, and it simply looks and performs badly. I wouldn't recommend this and really feel strongly this is a poor product sold at a massive mark up on the back of a popular chefs name, it is poor, badly designed and less effective than a fork and bowl or pestle and mortar.

Do not be seduced by the name, this is poor and lacks any redeemable feature. Disappointing.

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4/5 Stars.

I try to eat as healthily as possible and I make a lot of meals from scratch. I've recently become a Vegan so my food is quite limited until I start experimenting with the different meat substitutes etc, which is why I like to make dressings and marinades to add a bit of extra taste to my salads/pasta and so on.

I used to just stick all of the ingredients into a bowl and stir it around but when I saw the flavour shakers by Jamie Oliver reduced in my local Debenhams, I decided to buy one - it seemed like a great idea and it also appealed to me because it would save on washing up as I wouldn't have to use any bowls or spoons, lol.

I paid £8.00 for my flavour shaker which was a reduced price - the RRP was £16.00, which I feel is very overpriced and despite how much I like this, I'm not sure that it's worth that much money when you can do excactly what this does with a basic kitchen utensil such as a spoon or rolling pin. The flavour shaker is very widely available and it can be found in a lot of high street stores as well as online. Amazon also sell it at a reduced price of around £10.00, which is a much more sensible price when compared to the retail price.

So.. what is a flavour shaker? It looks like quite a cool and unusual gadget but what it does is really basic - it simply crushes up cooking ingredients such as herbs, seeds and nuts and it mixes food together, meaning it's ideal for salad dressings. Using it is really simple - the design is simple enough and it has two halves which come apart by unscrewing them - it's quick and easy to do and putting them back together securely is really easy as they click into place.

To use the flavour shaker you need to unscrew it and put all of your ingredients in. Inside there's a little marble shaped ball which crushes up the ingredients. I usually use mine to make salad dressings - my favourite is white wine vinegar, olive oil, agave nectar, salt, garlic, mustard and sesame seeds. This mixes them all up within a few shakes. Shaking it is really easy; despite being quite bulky it's not heavy and the little grips ensure that it doesn't fly out of my hand mid-shake!

The dressings and marinades that I make in this always come out nicely mixed up with any seeds etc all crushed up finely with no lumpy bits. It's never pastey or mushy, but saying that I do always make my salad dressings with oil so if you used this with purely dry ingredients the results may be different. Cleaning the flavour shaker couldn't be easier and it takes literally 2 minutes to rinse it out and wipe the ball. It's dishwasher safe, however I find that rinsing it out is quick and more effecient.

Overall, I'm really impressed with the flavour shaker, but I wouldn't pay the full retail price. If you ever see this on offer I'd recommend getting one, but if not you might as well stick to using a pestle and mortar.

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A decent little kitchen gadget

I was given one of these the christmas before last and have used it quite a lot. It's a well made kitchen gadget and unlike a lot of gadgets it actually does what it is supposed to do!

It is basically an alternative to a pestle and mortar and can be used for grinding spices.

It is made from hard plastic with a rubberised grip to allow you to keep hold of it while shaking it like a loon, else it'd be slipping out of your hands and would either break itself or something else...this could easily go through a window I'm sure!

Inside there is a small hard ceramic ball which being nice and hard makes light work of most spices. I have used this to break down a lot of dried chillies I had grown and dried out and have to say it did a nice job of breaking them down to form nice flakes.

When making a spice mix I find it quite useful to add a little oil to help keep all the spices together which seems to make the grinding more effective.

The only negative thing I could say about this, apart from the noise of the ball banging about while you shake, is the fact that you don't have the same control or power as you have when grind by hand with a pestle and mortar but overall it's a decent little tool

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Despite its short comings, this mixes herbs well

If a bit of kitchen kit is endorsed by a celebrity then its usually a big turn off for me, I can only imagine if it needs a celebrity name scrawled on the packaging they must be hiding something. I know this is not true, but the staunch cynic in my won't let this go - never-the-less, this 'Flavor Shaker' from Jamie Oliver is a handy tool in my kitchen and is something that gets frequent use.

I like Jamie Oliver. I know 99.9% of the population are sick to the back teeth of him by now, but I still like him. I still consider that slide down the banister thing he did at the start of 'The Naked Chef' to be one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I love his cooking and his recipes, for the very fact he uses simple ideas and techniques that result in great quality food so fitting then that this 'Flavor Shaker' is really simple and easy to use but can have really great results.

------THE FLAVOR SHAKER-----

Quite simply this kind of does one of the basic functions of a pestle and mortar, but in a bit more of a fancy way. I have the red one as pictured but they come in a few different colours, all however are the same elongated egg shape, again as pictured. The shaker consists of two halves which screw together and inside is a heavy little ball - feels like the weight of a marble. The shaker when screwed together has a black plastic grip that helps it from slipping as you shake it. Quite simply you unscrew it, put what you want to shake in the bottom, put the ball in screw on the top (make sure its clicked into place) and shake it.

A simple example of the result would be coriander seeds (something I smash up to use in various Indian dishes). The seeds are dry and whole before you put them in, after when you have shook some in the flavour shaker they are crushed and releasing the flavour. Once you've 'shook' what you want you can unscrew it, take the ball out and pour the just tip the contents out - its pretty straight forward.

Now, the flavour shaker is by no means doing a unique job. You can crush seeds in a pestle and mortar, with a rolling pin or end underneath the back of a spoon under a chopping board - the flavour shaker is just a bit of a cleaner, slightly quicker and slightly more effective way of doing this.

As I mentioned, this gets a lot of use in my kitchen, but it is good for some things and bad for others.

-------WHAT ITS GOOD AT-------

Its good at crushing dried herbs and mixing them together. Say a recipe called for coriander seeds, turmeric and pepper corns - all to be crushed and mixed in. Just put all these ingredients in the shaker, shake and tip out. Its a simple process that takes just a few seconds and its pretty much mess free.

Its good for releasing flavours. If you crush, say a pepper corn in this you will smash all the flavour out meaning more of it will end up in the food rather than in the pepper corn, so you can use it to enhance the flavours of you food by crushing certain ingredients.

------WHAT ITS BAD AT---------

Unfortunately, the list of what its not good at is a little longer than what it is good at. Its not very good with non-dried food. Put wet food, such as fresh basil leaves and it won't do much to them - with most sticking to the sides of the bottom, not getting crushed of mixed very well. This is something a pestle and mortar could do well as you have more control over where you are crushing and can apply more pressure.

Its not good for making dressings or mixing liquids. Its advertised as being great for mixing dressings - such as salad dressings, but when I use it for this it tends to leak an awful lot so much so I've stopped using for this purpose. Instead I mix the herbs in this and then transfer them into an old small bottle with a screw lid and then add oil, and use this. None leaks from this unlike the flavour shaker that leaks not only a considerable amount but has leaked more and more the older it has got, suggesting the screw is wearing out.

Its small. You can crush quite a bit in this, but say you we're making salad dressing as it suggest you do you could only make a enough to dress 1-2 salads.

--------CLEANING---------

The cleaning of this however is a big plus point as its super simple. Take the ball out and rinse the ball, then just run the two halves under a tap, wipe with a soapy cloth and then rinse. The entire cleaning process takes 30 seconds max.

Something great about this is even with a quick clean the flavours from the last use are washed off easily so next time you use it, it won't taste of the last thing you mixed.

-----OVERALL-------

All in, I like this despite is actually has limited use. When recipes call for various herbs I mix them in this together first as it enriches the flavours and generally lifts good food to great food. I would hope it would leak less, but alas - it doesn't so I this function is only there if you're OK inadvertently risking redecorating your kitchen. I have tried adding raw garlic to it to see if it will crush it as you could in a pestle and mortar, but it just comes out a bit squashed - so I still use a pestle and mortar for this, which takes a little longer but is a bit more satisfying.

A huge part of me wants to write this off as a useless kitchen novelty, but despite the fact it does several jobs poorly and one well - I still find myself using it quite often and would recommend it if you cook with dried herbs a lot, or generally like experimenting in the kitchen. It will set you back about £10 on Amazon at the time of writing.

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Don't waste your money

I enjoy cooking and so as a result tend to get a kitchen gadget or two for my birthday and for Christmas each year. Some of them have been super useful whilst others have been a bit of a disappointment. I'm afraid the Jamie Oliver Flavour Shaker falls into the latter group. This is partly because it is an expensive gimmick but mainly because I just don't see the point of it.

I got mine a few years ago for Christmas when Oliver was just about everywhere and everywhere he could be. Mine is the original flavour shaker and cost about £20 at the time. It has since been reincarnated in many styles and colours to keep it going, but I think you can buy the original in Debenhams for about £15 and probably much cheaper elsewhere.

I've never particularly liked or disliked Jamie Oliver, so that has no bearing on my opinion of the product. However I do like my gadgets and so I embraced this new one as I always do. The flavour shaker is basically a gadget to create dressings and the like by mixing herbs and so on. You just grab your ingredients, add some oil or whatever and 'shake the flavour'. Simples . . . or so it would seem.

As my title suggests, it looks like a Babushka Doll (or nesting dolls as they are sometimes called) - the wooden toys where they are packed one inside the other. The flavour shaker is made of fairly robust plastic which is transparent so you can see how your dressing or whatever is coming along. It also has a rubber grip around the edge which makes it easier to grip when you are shaking. That is one of the only good things I have to say about the flavour shaker - it is designed so that it is fairly easy to hold.

The only other good thing about it is that it has measurements up the side of it, so you can pour liquids straight into it without have to dirty your measuring jug as well.

Inside the gadget is a fairly hefty plastic ball. The idea is that when you shake it around, it will crush all your ingredients together and let the flavours out. To be honest on the few times that I have used it, it has just turned everything into mush.

I have found that I have had to chop things up (garlic especially because it seems to pound the goodness right out of that) before I put it in the flavour shaker, which leads me back to the question of 'what is the point of it?'. If I have to chop everything up first, then I might as well just hand make whatever it is I'm making.

My other problem with it is that you have to shake it so rigorously that it is a lot of hard work. I think a lot of people will struggle to use it for that reason.

Also, it is a pain to keep clean because you have to take all the bits apart and you'd be amazed at how many crevices in it things like oil seem to get stuck!

I think this product has an effect like Marmite - you either love it or you hate and I'm afraid to say I am firmly in the hate it camp. I don't see the point of it, it is more hassle than it is worth and it is overpriced.

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rubbish!

I was bought this for Christmas about three years ago and I must say that in that time I've only used it a handful of times and find that it just sits in the cupboard unused but I feel as though I cannot throw it away seeing as it was a gift.

I was bought it because I quite like Jamie Oliver and a friend of mine thought it would come in useful as I do like cooking and making sauces and things from scracth and I do find it quite hard to use a pestle and morter now that my wrists are quite bad so really there was quite a lot of thought behind the buying of this gift.The point of this gadget is to be used instead of a pestle and morter. The idea is that you put your cloves and spices and what not into this, fasten it shut and then shake. There is a ball inside- the size of a ping pong ball which is what crushes and grinds the ingredients. It's quite a heavy ball although not anywhere near as heavy as if it was made from pestle and morter type stone!

I mean just looking at this i could tell that it was not going to be as effective as a pestle and morter. The ball inside it is just not heavy enough and is only powered by the amount of force you put into shaking it and so you may as well use your strength to grind the items yourself with a standard, traditional pestel and morter!The shaker itself as you can see from the picture is shaped a little like a bowling pin, the ball gets as much momentum as it can by going up to the narrow part of this and then bouncing down into the wider part where presumably your herbs and things would be. It is made from plastic and it is tough enough to withstand the ball's action and you open and close it by unscrewing it.

I find that this does not crush up the herbs and spices as efficiently as a pestle and morter, it just doesn't crush things down and I have never been able to completely crush garlic with it like it is supposed to do. It IS easier to pour the residue out than it is with a pestle and morter which i struggle to lift up due to it's weight but that is about as positive as I can be about it!

Washing this up is hard, it seems to just stay greasy and bits of herbs and oils get stuck in the grooves inside this which is annoying. I find the ball feels greasy to touch constantly too no matter how much I wash it in hot soapy water.

It also annoys me with how it doesn't store very well. It doesn't stand up, it's always toppling over so that is very annoying!

This is useful to help break up your cloves and spices to an extent without having to apply a lot of pressure or use heavy equipment but it doesn't do it very effectively, you still need to use a lot of force/energy to use it and it is difficult to clean, awkward to store and rather tacky.

1 star, a complete let down. Why do I still own this?!

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nice and fun but not always practical

Jamie Oliver.... I think you love him or you hate him really and I do love him! I have some fantastic cookery books of his and a couple of salad and serving bowls from his range that I have been bought as gifts.When I saw the flavour shaker in TK MAXX for £6.99, I had to try one. I have been intrigued by them for ages and they usually retail at around £15.00, you can pick one up everywhere now, from supermarkets from department stores.

*Description*

It is a modern plastic pestle and mortar designed in the style of a bowling pin! It is made out of plastic, but there are parts that are rubberised for your fingers to hold so that the shaker doesn't slip from your grip.It has a larger bottom section with a flat base so you can stand it upright and a narrower top half that is curved and forms the head of the "bowling pin." Both these parts screw together with a rubber seal to make the shaker water proof so it does not leak. Inside the shaker; is the thing that gives it the shake, the ball. This is made out of ceramic and is quite heavy, which is needed if you are attempting to blend herbs and crush them.The idea is that you then put all your ingredients on top of the ball, whether liquid or solid, or both, into the bottom half of the shaker and screw it together with the top. Then you are ready to mix. Shake the bowling pin and let the little ball crash around, crushing and mixing as it goes.

*My thoughts and experiences*

Have you ever seen Tom Cruise in Cocktail? Well this is who I thought I was the first time I used it. I was flipping it around and really giving it a good shake. The noise it made was horrendous and I was a little frightened that the ball would come crashing through the plastic! It didn't and the rubberised part of the shaker makes it really easy to grip so you can hold on to it without fear of it falling.

One of Jamie's suggested recipes is a salad dressing and I made the mistake of adding everything to the shaker at once. It just is not big enough to accommodate everything. Less seems to be more for the shaker to have the biggest impact.The best recipe that I found was a basil, balsamic vinegar and pine nut dressing. The flavour shaker was very successful at smashing the pine nuts up and mixing it with the basil leaves. It tasted absolutely delicious served over feta and tomato salad.I have had some success with the shaker, herbs blended and peppercorns crushed, however it does not allow the sort of pressure that a pestle and mortar can exert. I have read and re read the instructions and the shaker is supposed to be dishwasher proof. I put mine in the dish washer not so long ago and put it away afterwards. The next time I came to use it, I decided to make some chilli oil for a dressing and screwed the parts together only to have it leak on me as soon as I started to shake it!On examining it, I found a small crack in it, close to where it fastens. I was a very cross that it has broken so soon after purchase and now can only use it for solid items!

*Overall*

I will not be rushing out to replace it as it is something I can do without. You could have the same sort of success with a rolling pin but it not quite as fun. It adds a little flair to the kitchen.

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An easy way of making a sauce with a difference.

Because I cook most of the meals in our house and when family come over it's generally thought that I enjoy cooking (which I do) which tends to mean I get tons of gifts and gadgets, half of which I'd never even use but the thought is there and I'm not ungrateful! I received this flavour shaker for my birthday last year and have now used it on a fair few occasions. I believe it cost around £10 last year and the price seems to be similar now depending on what colour you are interesting in owning. Mine is opaque grey with a black grip which is fine as it's nice and neutral if I leave it sitting out on my worktop, also the design of this is fairly inoffensive looking a little bit mysterious but instantly recognisable if you know what it is. There are also several other colours available meaning you should be able to mix & match this to your kitchen if you choose to.

This flavour shaker is designed to work like a pestle and mortar but without all the hard work. You simply add all your ingredients, add the ceramic ball, connect the two halves together, close the lid and give it a good shake. The ceramic ball helps to crush everything down and turn it in to a lovely sauce or marinade. There is none of the mess of a pestle & mortar and hardly any washing up which is fantastic too!

The idea of this little shaker is quite genius actually and it comes with a little flavour scoop or you can just pour the sauce straight out over your food. I mainly use this for making marinades for meat which I then rub in and leave covered in the fridge overnight before cooking. I find that the taste is always slightly different, probably because I just throw in the ingredients I want to use rather than measuring anything. It takes just a few seconds to load this up and not much longer to make a wonderful sauce. I always feel a little cool using this, like I do my cocktail maker, as I just love knowing that I throw stuff in and something brilliant is going to come out (well, most of the time!). There is also a little handy recipe book for people who like that kind of thing (me!) which has been quite useful to me.

The flavour shaker is very easy to clean, just take it apart and wash it up or do the same and put it in your dishwasher. The quality of this product is quite good and it's got a non slip grip on it which is very useful to ensure it doesn't go flying off. I have dropped this on a couple of occasions while mucking around and so far it's remained airtight and sturdy with not a scratch on it. It's lightweight and it's very simple to just toss all your ingredients in and give it a good shake. It really is a very quick way to make a delicious sauce in just a few minutes. I would have no qualms with recommending this product and while I had read some bad reviews on it in the past I am very pleased to have received this for my birthday. I did start off using the recipes in the booklet but over time my confidence has grown and I'm happy to try lots of new things.

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A nifty little gadget

I've been eating a lot of salads and vegetables since I've been on Slimming World. While they are undoubtedly very good for me, they can on occasion be a bit dull - but can be easily livened up with salad dressing. However, many salad dressings can be quite oily, so, opting to make my own, I purchased a Flavour Shaker to help me do it .

The Jamie Oliver Flavour Shaker is pretty widely available - I've been seeing it on shop shelves for years, and a few months ago picked one up from Asda in a stylish black for around £8. It looks a little like a squashed bowling skittle in shape- curved and rounded at the bottom, with a neck that is much narrower . It comes in two parts, which screw together, and contains a ball inside that does any grinding that is needed. The shaker has plenty of textured rubber on the outside that enables you to get a good solid grip.

It's pretty simple - just pop in all the bits for the salad dressing you want to make (the flavour shaker comes with a few suggestions), screw it closed, and give it a vigorous shaking to get all the ingredients ground down and mixed together. It's actually pretty fun to use, with the vigorous shaking giving you a good arm workout, although the noise the ball makes clattering about it quite loud. The ball grinds down larger ingredients - very much like a pestle and mortar, but with a lot less effort. I find I can put in very roughly torn fresh herbs and this will make them come out a lot smaller.

This can be used for other things than dressings - use it to make your own spice blends for curries, or to make marinades for barbecue meats . The good thing about the design of the shaker is that dressings can be poured straight out onto salads from the shaker itself, and leftovers stored within the shaker in the fridge .

When it comes to washing, this is very easy to clean - a little hot soapy water brings it up a treat, and if you happen to have a dishwasher, this can be washed on the top shelf.

I think it's a great little gadget - stylish looking (and available in an assortment of different colours) and does the job it sets out to do . I do recommend shopping around to get a good price - I've seen it from as little as 5.99 up to a whopping 23.99.

5 stars, a great gadget for the kitchen .

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A great little product

I became a little obsessed with Jamie Oliver last year whilst watching his 30 minute meals programme and had to go out and buy myself some of his products. It helps that the majority of them look really stylish in my kitchen and help make me look like I know what I am doing.

The flavour shaker is maybe my favourite of his products and I not only love how i looks but it is one that I actually use instead of just admiring the look of on my work top. It is basically a fancy alternative to a pestal and mortar which incedintaly I also like to use if only for the fact it makes me feel like a proper cook. However using a pestal and mortar is not the easiest thing in the world and sometimes it is nice to be able to accomplish something in the kitchen without too much hassle and that's where the flavour shaker comes in.

It is basically two halfs of plastic that you seperate and add all the ingredients you want such as galric, herbs etc and then you screw them back together and shake it until you get the consistency you want. It has a ceramic ball in it which is what does the hard work for you and it is really easy to crush garlic or make a lovely marinade with it.

It might be easy to use but it does involve a hell of a lot of shaking to get things crushed and it isn't as lightweight as I imagined it to be. As it is plastic I have been scared that the ceramic ball is going to smash through it as I need to shake it extremely hard to get it to work but luckily I have had no problems with it cracking yet. To be honest a petal and mortar is probably easier but it's just the fact that I make such a mess with the pestal and mortar that I use this instead as I don't have to worry about bits flying out and onto the floor or behind the cooker.

To begin with it is quite fun to use but the novelty soon wears off that so don't buy it expecting it to be really fun and that you won't have to put any effort into it as you still do unfortunately. It also cost me £14.99 so it isn't exactly cheap for a little plastic item but then again I did buy it knowing it was endorsed by a celebrity chef and I am a bit of a cuker for advertising.

The flavour shaker has it's problems but I still love mine and I am glad I bought it and I only wish it was a little sturdier made so I didn't have to worry about it breaking on me.

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Will be a nice kitchen toy - as soon as I find use for it!

I got this last year as Christmas present for my friend who is a fan of Jamie Oliver and loves cooking, and as it was on sale (for only £8) and looked so great I got one for myself, too. Since then I only tried it couple of times, and unfortunately I'm not sure will I ever use it again...

It comes in a range of colours, I've got Cool Blue version and package includes shaker with ceramic ball, a plastic/rubber spoon I never got any use for, and a brochure with some recipes and ideas. It looks really stylish, modern piece of kitchen equipment. It looks like made of good quality plastic, it's quite heavy and sturdy, doesn't give a feeling it will break anytime soon.

I don't really do many dressings, but I tried it to crush some spices instead of pestle and mortar, but the small ceramic ball wasn't strong enough. Then I tried it for mixing an egg with spices - I only used one egg, but only made a mess as the shaker wasn't big enough for it. I also tried crushing garlic, again the ball wasn't strong enough to do that. Apart from that, it is really exhausting to use as the shaker is rather heavy.

Overall, it's a very good looking thing to have in your cupboard, and doesn't take a lot of space, but that's pretty much all good can say about it. Unless you often make small amounts of dressings, it's useless. What a shame, as I really loved the idea - I will update this review as soon as I can find a new use for it!

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Brilliant product

I really love kitchen gadgets, anything that can potentially make life easier has got to be worth while.

I have had my flavour shaker for about 3 years and it's great. Me and my husband both use it. When I bought it, it cost about £10.00 but they might be cheaper than that now. They come in a range of colours, but the main ones I have seen are black, red and olive green.

The flavour shaker is basically a plastic container that unscrews in the middle, and has a ball inside it (not sure what the ball is made from). The shape of it reminds me of those russian dolls where there are smaller ones inside each one.

You can use the flavour shaker for all sorts of things, such as a crushing herbs and spices, to make marinades, or making salad dressings (what we mainly use it for), and even just to give things a good mix.

The ball inside the flavour shaker is great, as it is quite heavy, it works really well at crushing large herbs or spices and it's a lot less effort and more fun than a pestle and mortar.

We usually make salad dressings with this as I personally find it a lot easier than putting everything in a bowl and mixing, also when you have made the dressing, if you have any left over you can save it for another day by just putting the flavour shaker in the fridge, and it doesn't take up as much space as other containers.

This is great for experimenting with dressings, just chuck all the ingredients in, twist it shut and give it a good old shake. The rubber on the outside is also a good grip, because if it wasn't there I could imagine this slipping out your hands and flying across the kitchen!

I find this really easy to clean as well, and it looks pretty funky in the kitchen.

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if you eat salad all the time i recommend it, otherwise just use a mixing bowl

My boyfriend takes a 'manly' interest in cooking. This means he doesn't bake cakes or wear an apron, but he does have a real admiration for Jamie Oliver! And so I bought him the flavour Shaker for Christmas last year.

It was reduced to £9.99 in British Home Stores. They usually charge £15.99 but after a little research online I see you can get it for £9.99 from Amazon and sometimes cheaper on ebay.

It comes in a variety of colours. You can choose a colour to match your kitchen,but personally I went for a clear one so I can see what my dressing looks like!

It's quite a conveniant way of making dressing because there is a minimal amount of washing up. But this is the only real advantage as far as I can see. I use a pestal and mortar anyway so the little ball inside doesn't do much, but it isn't enough on it's own to crush ingrediants I shouldn't think. It's handy to be able to give it a shake to really mix the ingrediants (hence the name) but you can get the same effect using a fork in a mixing bowl. Consiquently we really haven't used it very much. We do make a lot of salads but sometimes it's just easier to use a bowl you've already got your ingrediants in (as often you'll be weighing them out etc anyway). I wouldn't say we've had our moneys worth.

In summary it's quite a snazzy little product. It makes a good gift but isn't something I would really buy for myself. There are better kitchen tools to spend your £10 on.